


Ghost Story

by TheManyFacesofJester



Category: Turn (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, M/M, Pre-Slash, pure ridiculousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-07
Updated: 2016-06-07
Packaged: 2018-07-12 18:53:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7118326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheManyFacesofJester/pseuds/TheManyFacesofJester
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Benjamin Tallmadge and Caleb Brewster share an apartment. They just don't know it.</p><p>Alternatively: In which Ben works day shift and Caleb works night shift and they both assume they have a haunted apartment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ghost Story

**Author's Note:**

> Was this even necessary? Nope. Nope, it wasn't. Did I write it anyway? Yup. Yup, I did.

Day 1

The apartment left little to be desired. It was fully furnished, everything worked, and the view from the window was glorious. The only problem was a touch of over furnishing. Whoever the previous tenant was had left a lot of things in the apartment: Books on the shelves, knick-knacks on all the counters, and pictures hanging up everywhere.

Benjamin Tallmadge set down his small suitcase beside him then unbuttoned the sleeves of his collared dress shirt. He was exhausted from the train ride to his new apartment in Setauket, but the prospect of starting his new librarian job was exhilarating enough to give him some extra energy, so he put on his pajamas, rolled his tiny suitcase of clothes under the bed, then got to work taking down a few of the things he wouldn’t need in the apartment. In the living room area there was a desk beneath a wall of framed pictures. Ben decided to start there and carefully took down every photo on the wall, resting each in a pile on the desk.

The whole ordeal of taking down just those photographs took a lot longer than Ben had anticipated and he ended up working from 9:00pm to 11:00pm just to take down the photos on that wall, since they seemed to be stuck with glue as well as being hung by a nail. Most of the pictures featured a young man with a full beard and think locks of brown hair.

_He must have been the previous owner. How strange that he left so much behind. Was he in a hurry to leave?_

When all the photos were removed Ben went to the bed and flopped down. The sheets on the bed felt clean, just as the landlord had promised they would be. To someone who had a full day of work in seven hours, not having to make his own bed was a dream come true. Almost as good as not having to buy his own furniture. He was out like a light within minutes.

||

Everything felt out of place. Caleb Brewster had never felt so off put in his own apartment. He felt like someone had been there while he was working all night at the post office. Working the night shift was certainly draining, especially since he had only started working during the night and sleeping during the days a week ago, but he had never been so exhausted that he imagined his things had been moved.

For the most part the shift of his belongings was subtle. His bed was made, as usual, but it was exceptionally well made in a style that was close to what Caleb did, but not quite. The bathroom toilet was full of clear water when Caleb almost certainly remembered not flushing it when he left last night at 8:00pm. Caleb could claim that he was imagining all of that, but when he got to his photo wall in the living room area he knew he wasn’t. All of his pictures had been removed from the wall and were sitting in a stack on the counter. That was definitely _not_ where he left them.

“Hello!” Caleb called out, glancing over his shoulders as he walked throughout the house. “Hello!” He called again, then he ran to his kitchen to check the jar of money he kept behind the pipes. He sighed with relief that it was still there, but he made the rounds to see if anything else had been stolen. To him the only obvious solution was that someone had broken in to rob him, but a thorough sweep of the place suggested that nothing was missing. No silverware, no expensive glassware, not even his near perfect replica of the Mono Lisa but with a dog instead of a girl, which he prized as a viciously important piece of artwork. Nothing was gone.

_Who breaks into someone’s house to take down photographs?_

After spending a considerable amount of time inspecting the pictures to figure out if anything had been changed regarding the contents of the pictures, and finding nothing, he elected to hang the pictures back up and pretend nothing had happened. That usually worked for him.

Day 2

Ben arrived home that night feeling all kinds of good. His new job was everything he had expected it to be. He loved working at this library even more than the one at Yale, but then this was a paying job, not a volunteer job, so there was already an incentive to appreciate his current situation. Still, it had been a long day of sorting and shelving, and yesterday had been a tiring day of travel, but when he walked past the desk in the living room he could have sworn he had taken those pictures down. And yet, there they were, hanging up on the wall, full of that bearded smiling face.

_This is… weird… Did I just buy a haunted apartment?_

There was a quick dash to the bed as Ben grabbed his flashlight and began to search every nook and cranny of the freaky apartment where pictures magically reappeared on the walls. He checked in every draw, behind every closet, and in every cupboard. While he didn’t find any evidence of anything paranormal, he did find a heavy jar full of money.

_Why would someone leave money? Unless- The last owner must have died! That’s why everything is still here!_

Ben stashed the jar of money back under the sink and rushed back to the pictures to take them back down. This time, however, he threw them into a draw and shut it quickly, then ran to turn on all the lights he could find. His room must have looks like Times Square on New Year’s but this was creeping him out. So he made and ate dinner as fast as he could, not bothering to wash the dishes or put anything away. Then he rushed to bed and fell asleep with all the lights on, keeping his flashlight by his bed, just in case this spirit started messing with the lights.

||

When Caleb got home that evening he immediately went to check on the pictures. He thought for sure they would still be there and he was just being absurd, but lo and behold, there they weren’t. His pictures weren’t even on the desk anymore. It took a solid five minutes to locate them inside a draw they had been stuffed into. He supposed it could have been possible that they had fallen off the other night, but this was ridiculous. Pictures don’t put themselves away.

This time he didn’t bother to check his house for missing objects and instead went straight to the kitchen to get himself a drink. A beer might clear his head, at least that’s what he thought until he saw the sink full of dirty dishes.

_OK, this is getting out of hand. Time to check with the neighbors._

There were three people in the world who had spare keys to Caleb’s apartment. There was Anna Strong, who was the ex-wife of an old friend of Caleb’s; Abraham Woodhull, Anna Strong’s current boyfriend; and Abigail Strong, Anna Strong’s step-sister who lived next door. Anna had insisted that she and all the people closest to her get keys in case of an emergency. Caleb was more than happy to comply, though no emergencies had ever resulted in anyone coming over. Still, he decided it was time to pay a visit to Abigail next door to see if anyone had been over.

“No, sorry sweetness, I haven’t been there,” Abigail said after Caleb explained the situation.

“And you didn’t see anyone?”

“Honey, I work third shift at the hospital every day this week. I’m not here during the day.”

Caleb thanked her and went back to his place to call Abe and Anna, both of whom also claimed to not have visited. The sheer weirdness of the situation was making Caleb feel uncomfortable, so Anna and Abe made promises to come over tomorrow morning to inspect the situation. For now that was good enough, so Caleb washed the dishes and went to bed as the sun continued to rise in the sky.

Day 3

Ben crept cautiously into his apartment when he got home that day. He tiptoed into the house then latched the door behind him, checking left and right for any potential issues. He was later getting home than he had been the past few nights, so he wondered if the spirit in his home had been more active in his absence.

To his surprise, the pictures were not hanging up again. They were, however, out of their draw and sitting on the counter. Other things were out of place as well. Ben’s dishes had been washed and put away, and the bed was entirely unmade today, as opposed to being made up in an unusual way.

_This is too much. There has to be a way to communicate with this ghost; Let it know I come in peace._

Ben decided the best course of action would be to call up his friend Nathan Hale, who had moved to Florida after finishing up Yale.

“What do you want me to do, Ben? I’m a thousand miles away!”

“Just _tell_ me what to do, Nate! There’s a ghost in my apartment!”

“OK, but how do you know that?” Nate sounded like he didn’t approve of Ben’s antics.

“You’re you not listening to a thing I said!” Ben practically screamed. “The pictures, the dishes, the bed!”

“Ben, I don’t know what to tell you. If he’s a ghost he seems friendly. Like Casper.”

“He’s a lot prettier than Casper,” Ben murmured, looking at the pictures of the previous owner. He smiled like he meant it. He must have gotten all the girls when he was alive.

“You could leave him a note,” Nate suggested. “If he can wash dishes, he can write.”

Ben considered this a brilliant idea and hung up to write a note to leave on the desk in the living room. He simply wrote:

Who are you?

||

Anna and Abe arrived at Caleb’s apartment the same time as Caleb and they went in together. They all inspected the apartment to discover Caleb’s bed made, when the photos on Caleb’s phone clearly showed that he hadn’t made it before he left. They also found the note left.

“OK, that’s weird.” Anna agreed, picking up the note.

“Which is why I brought this!” Abe exclaimed, pulling out an Ouija board from the bag he brought with him. Caleb and Anna both gave him blank stares as he set it up.

“What are we gonna do with that?” Caleb said dryly.

“Talk to your ghost friend.”

Caleb and Anna didn’t seem to care much for the idea, but they all sat down anyway around the board. Abe made a big show about summoning the spirit, but since they didn’t know the ghosts name, gender, or relation to the apartment, the speech was sort of ambiguous.

They sat around the board in the middle of the floor for an hour, but nothing came of the excursion. A few times the cup they placed on the board started to move, but Anna’s giggling gave away the jest. Abe seemed disappointed, Anna seemed amused, but Caleb was just tired.

“Listen, thanks for all your… help. I’m just gonna leave a message the same way I was left one,” Caleb said as he pulled a photo out of one of the frames, placed it down by the paper note he had been left, and drew a large arrow to his face, then wrote:

Who are _you?_

He figured the spirit would get the message. Anna approved of that response, though she said it was a bit vague, but then Caleb didn’t really want to start a conversation with a ghost that leaves dirty dishes in his sink. He just wanted the ghost to know that he was here and he wasn’t leaving. If it was a ghost and not some cheap prank by someone. He hadn’t ruled out Abe and Anna as potential suspects for these antics.

Day 4

Some of Ben’s things had finally arrived in the mail from Yale. They were just little items: Personal affects and trinkets, but with all the goings-on happening in the apartment Ben wasn’t exactly sure what to do with the items. As he entered the apartment, however, Ben became distracted from the thoughts of the contents in the box he was carrying when he saw the answered note.

All that was written was a large arrow pointing to the smiling face of the bearded man and:

Who are _you?_

It was as Ben had anticipated: The spirit _was_ the man in the pictures. That at least gave Ben a starting point for researching who this man was and how he died. Ben quickly pulled his laptop out from his suitcase under the bed and got to work looking up whoever this previous tenant was. Yet, despite how hard he looked and how specific he got, there was nothing to be found. No one matching his description seemed to have existed at all in the complex, let alone in that room. Ben would go and ask the landlord, but Robert Rogers intimidated him and probably wouldn’t be likely to tell one of his residents if someone had died in their room, so he was stuck with this literal dead end.

Now Ben was left to ponder how to answer the ghost’s question, since that seemed the only way to get answers from this situation.

_If he answered with a picture, I guess I could do the same._

Ben rummaged through his box of affects until he found a photo of him and Nathan from college. He placed the image down and drew an arrow pointing to his face, then added:

What do you want?

Filled with confidence from his current conversation with the spirit, he opted to set out some of his belongings. He put his Rubik’s Cube, his box of fortune cookie fortunes, and ancient Grecian vase replica on one of the counters. He also decided it was time to put his own sheets on the bed and replaced the old black sheets with his own pale blue ones.

In an effort to keep the spirit complacent he washed and folded the old sheets, placing them on the desk with the pictures that were still there. Nothing heinous happened when he removed the sheets and put his things on the counters, so Ben assumed he was in the clear. He could work with this.

||

Caleb had the worst day ever at work. He had gotten told off by his boss after his co-workers screwed up six orders in one hour, and he was in the mood to fight. His mood was _not_ improved by the additional items placed in his room and the answer to his note.

_Who is this? Is this supposed to help me or something?_

Caleb snatched the photo and went directly to Google to see if anyone alive or dead matching his appearance ever lived in the complex. His efforts, however, were fruitless. A single picture wasn’t much to go one and there wasn’t too much information out there pertaining to who had lived in a small apartment complex in the town of Setauket.

Caleb wasn’t sure how to answer the second half of the note, but when he took a second look at the new additions to his apartment, and he saw the new sheets on his bed, he knew exactly what he wanted. He grabbed a cardboard box from one of his closets and filled it with the new items before using at Sharpie to write on the side:

TRASH

He left the box outside his door then used the Sharpie to add an answer to the ghosts note:

I want you gone!

There was not one part of the Caleb that had the energy to actually change the sheets on his bed back to his own, but he did have the energy to pull out his cell phone to spend nearly thirty minutes complaining to both Anna and Abe on the phone about what was going on. By the time he got to bed the sun had already risen and Caleb was too exhausted to think straight.

Day 5

Rescuing all of his new belongings in the trash man’s arms on his way home was not what Ben was expecting. Nor was the spirit’s angry response to his question. It was obvious he had done something to upset the ghost and now he was being actively haunted. Ben took this as a sign that it was time to call in a professional.

Within 1 hour NEST, or the New England Spiritual Team, was at his place searching for evidence of paranormal activity. Ben sat nervously on the seat of his, well, the spirit’s sofa while they worked.

“The pictures are definitely what’s tying the ghost to this apartment,” one of the NEST workers said once they had finished their sweep. Ben wasn’t exactly sure how they had come to that conclusion, but their devices and machines had beeped and whirred a lot, and Ben was already frightened by the thought of being haunted by an angry spirit, so he was willing to take their word for it.

“So… what do I do?” Ben asked, picking up one of the pictures gently before one of the NEST workers smacked it out of his hands.

“You need to get rid of these pictures in a safe way,” a different worker said. “We can take them off your hands and dispose of the properly to ensure that the ghosts portal to this world is sealed for good.”

Ben thought their offer over for a moment, looking over the pictures of the smiling face. It didn’t seem fair to ban a ghost from his own house, even if Ben was living there too.

“Um, thanks,” Ben started. “But I think I’m gonna try and… close the portal myself. Since I’m the one who probably opened it and… yeah.”

While Ben thought he sounded like a fool the NEST workers nodded their heads as though they understood and packed up their things, telling Ben to alert them immediately if he failed to discontinue communications.

_What a bunch of weirdies… Well, I guess I’ll just have to settle this myself._

In an effort to show his good will, Ben replaced the sheets on his bed with the old ones, since that seemed to be one of the issues he had caused. He didn’t set his own items back out, but instead hung the pictures of the smiling, bearded man and his friends back up in their proper position. They had been sitting on the desk for far too long. He did, however, frame and hang the picture of him and Nathan and put it on the wall as well before adding a message to the note:

I won’t move anything else, I promise. I’m sorry if I upset you.

||

Caleb already felt bad about what he had done before he got home. He checked the large, green garbage bin outside the apartment to see if he could find the items he had thrown away, but nothing was there. The trash must have gone out during the night while he was gone.

He felt even worse when he got into his apartment and found the note. The ghost, whoever it was, hadn’t really done anything wrong. He had taken down a few items and changed his sheets and left some dirty dishes, but it could have been worse. He was glad, however, to see his pictures returned to the wall, though the spirit had added his own smiling face to the wall.

Caleb took the picture off the wall as he got ready for bed and looked at the face of the man who was haunting him.

_He does look like a sweet guy. I wonder what happened to him._

In the end Caleb sighed an added to the note:

You’re lucky you’re cute!

If this alleged ghost wanted to stay, Caleb would try not to care. Though, Caleb did wonder if it was possible to catch the ghost in action. In a spark of inspiration he elected to grab his old camera and set it up in a spot in the living room area. In the morning he would hit record, and he would settle once and for all what was going on in his apartment!

Day 6

It had rained all day and Ben was thankful that he had his poncho with him. The large, soaking wet garment looked much like a clear trash bag when Ben managed to get it off of him once he arrived at home, but it was so useful for its ugliness. Ben was in rather a hurry when he got out of his overpriced rain-bag so he could discover if the spirit had accepted his positive vibrations.

Ben could feel the spirits kindly energy as he read the note he had left behind, though that may have been his own blood rising to his face to make him blush.

_Is it weird for a dead guy to be flirting with me? Is it morally acceptable to flirt back? Is that how this relationship is now? I gotta call Nathan._

“Well, is _he_ cute?” Nathan asked over the phone. “You said he was, and I quote, ‘Prettier than Casper’ last time we talked.”

“Well, yes, he is cute, but he’s also dead, and probably has been for a while.”

“You just bought the apartment. He can’t have been dead for _that_ long!” Nathan said.

“OK, but dead is dead Nathan,” Ben sighed. “I don’t wanna end up on some freaks galore TV show because I’m dating a ghost.”

“So you _do_ want to date him then!”

“That’s not- You’re not helping.”

“But-”

“Good-bye, Nathan.”

In the end Ben wasn’t sure exactly what to do. That conversation had helped him so little it may have actually hindered him. Still, the picture of the smiling man was warm and friendly looking, so Ben decided it wasn’t a bad idea to at least accept the compliment.

Thanks. You’re pretty cute for a dead guy.

||

The rain had stopped by the time Caleb got home, but it had been all but hailing earlier. The lack of rain had made it far easier for Caleb to get home fast enough to check his camera. His home was mostly in sorts when he arrived, though he may have just been getting used to the feeling of his things being moved.

Unfortunately, as Caleb discovered when he removed his camera from its hiding place, the camera had died at some point, probably because Caleb hadn’t bothered to charge it the night before he used it, but he decided to plug it in and see what footage he had caught before the stupid device had died.

There was only a little over an hour of footage on the camera and most of it was just showing an empty apartment, but the last twenty-seven seconds showed something remarkable. A flowing, opaque figure emerged into view, apparently struggling and in a hurry. Caleb could have died of shock as he watched what was apparently clear coloured ghost twirl across the screen towards what seemed to be the desk. After watching the footage several times Caleb ran over to check the note:

Thanks. You’re pretty cute for a dead guy.

“Holy f-”

Caleb grabbed his phone from his pocket and group called Anna and Abe, who both picked up in a flash.

“He’s gonna kill me!” Caleb shouted into the phone.

“What? Who?” Abe responded, not sounding terribly concerned.

“The ghost! The ghost is going to kill me!”

“Hold on, has he _tried_ to kill you or is he _going_ to kill you?” Anna said, also calmer than Caleb would have wished her to be.

“He left a note calling me ‘cute for a dead guy’. That’s a pretty clear message!”

“Maybe it’s a figure of speech!” Abe suggested.

“Maybe he thinks you’re a ghost too!” Anna added. Caleb mulled that thought over more than Abe’s.

“You think he thinks I’m dead too? I mean, alright, that makes sense,” Caleb said, calming down. “You know what, I have tonight off. Whatever is going on in this place only goes on at night, and tonight I’m gonna figure this out once and for all!”

“Be careful,” Anna said. Caleb couldn’t hear anything from Abe’s side, but he was pretty sure Abe was nodding in agreement. This had to end.

Day 7

Ben got home earlier than usual. His shift had been cut due to a super storm warning in the area and the library was shutting down early. While he was upset at getting two hours of his pay cut, he was a little bit excited to see what else was going on in his haunted apartment. The spirit had seemed to take a shining to him despite almost throwing out all of his things, so Ben was pleased at the prospect of a courteous relationship between the two of them.

While Ben may have been expecting a new message on the note, or some pictures to be moved, he was not anticipating finding the bearded ghost lying in his bed.

There was a scream from Ben’s side of the room that woke up Caleb, who had fallen asleep after getting too tired to stay awake. Ben’s scream prompted Caleb’s scream and soon both of them were shrieking and pointing at one another.

“You’re the ghost!” Ben said once they finally stopped screaming.

“What? No, _you’re_ the ghost! _I_ live here!” Caleb shouted back.

“No, I live here. I just moved in!”

“Well, I moved in six years ago!”

“Well, when did you die?” Ben asked, keeping his distance from Caleb.

“Die- I didn’t die. I’m still alive! _You’re_ the dead one!”

“I’m not- Wait what?” Ben looked confused, and so did Caleb. Without thinking Ben walked right up to Caleb and touched him. “You’re not a ghost,” he said with his hand on Caleb’s arm.

“You’re not a ghost either,” Caleb concluded, not moving his arm away from Ben’s.

“Then… I’m confused. What’s going on here?”

“I don’t know,” Caleb answered, thinking over in his head what could be going on. “You said you just moved in?”

“Yeah, like a week ago.”

“Can I see you’re contract?”

“What? Oh, um, yeah,” Ben said, finally removing his arm from Caleb’s to pull his suitcase out from under the bed.

“Huh,” Caleb mumbled. If he had just checked there to begin with he wouldn’t found the suitcase and knew it was a person instead of a ghost. He also saw a cardboard box that he knew was full of the things he had tried to throw away. He wasn’t sure if that made him feel better or worse.

Eventually Ben handed Caleb his housing contract. The lease _was_ for this apartment, and it _was_ signed off by Robert Rogers, the landlord.

“How have we never run into each other before?” Ben asked. It just wasn’t possible for two people living in the same apartment to never see one another.

“I work night shifts,” Caleb said, searching over the contract. “I’m guessing you work the day shift- Son of a-”

“What?” Ben exclaimed, hurrying to look at the contract from over Caleb’s shoulder.

“No, no, it’s not the contract, it’s our shifts!” Caleb said. Ben didn’t follow. “Rogers knew I started working night shifts last week, and you must have told him you worked day shifts! So he-”

“Sold us the same apartment and charged us both the full rate!” Ben said, catching on. “He honestly though we wouldn’t notice!?” Ben added, incredulous.

“Apparently!”

“I feel like such an idiot,” Ben said, sitting down on the side of the bed. “I thought you were a ghost.”

“I thought _you_ were a ghost!” Caleb echoed, only he was laughing. “We’re so stupid!”

Out of sheer embarrassment and lunacy Ben and Caleb found themselves laughing too hard to speak at their own ridiculous conclusions. But then, neither of them could have predicted the truth. After all, that truth was almost stranger than fiction.

“I’m Caleb Brewster, but the way,” Caleb said between gasps when he found his control again.

“I’m Benjamin Tallmadge,” Ben responded, holding out his hand to be shaken.

“I look forward to rooming with you, Benny,” Caleb smiled. “Once we sort out the issue of payment with Robert Rogers, of course. I’m thinking quarter price for each of us and Rogers eats the rest.”

“I think you’ve got yourself a deal, Caleb,” Ben agreed. “You’re pretty clever for a dead guy!”

“And you’re pretty cute for a living one.”

There was a smile, and a laugh, and both of them were headed out the door together to tell Robert Rogers a fantastic ghost story.


End file.
